looking through the center of the world

Last night after watching an unintentionally silly production of The Revenger's Tragedy at the National I walked down the South Bank to see the Telectroscope.


The Telectroscope was created by artist Paul StGeorge with the help of Artichoke, the arts group who helped bring The Sultan's Elephant to London. Supposedly, more than 100 years after it was begun by (fictional) Victorian inventor Alexander Stanhope StGeorge, a tunnel running under the Atlantic ocean was completed and "an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa."



In reality the Telectroscopes are video installations erected in New York City and London allowing viewers on either end to interact in real time.

When we were there last night it was sunny in New York, and people on both sides were laughing and waving and holding up signs to communicate.

More images (including the giant drill bit used in the installation) can be found here, and people's experiences of the Telectroscope can be found on the Telectroscope blog.